Jacob C. Jentzer, M.D.

  • Consultant, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

What moment or experience in your life influenced your decision to be a clinician? And now, to become a Kern Health Care Delivery Scholar?

My father was a physician and one of my primary role models, influencing my decision to become a clinician.

After I began publishing research on Mayo Clinic patients' experiences in the cardiac intensive care unit, I had a realization that what I was doing was outcomes research. Up to that point, it was difficult for me to envision ways to translate my research into clinical practice. For me, the Kern Health Care Delivery Scholar Program holds promise as a pathway to help me apply my research findings to improve patient care and outcomes.

Why did you choose Mayo Clinic to pursue your career?

In addition to its established reputation for clinical and academic excellence, Mayo Clinic has offered me the opportunity to simultaneously pursue my clinical interest — caring for patients who are critically ill with acute cardiovascular disease — and my research interests in defining and improving outcomes of patients in the cardiac intensive care unit.

What is your focus as a scholar within the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery?

My specific project focuses on the development of a clinical decision-support tool to facilitate early detection and staging of hemodynamic instability and shock in patients who are hospitalized with acute cardiovascular disease, particularly in the cardiac intensive care unit.

The hope is that early identification of shock can allow sooner initiation of treatment, recognizing that the longer that the shock state persists untreated, the worse it will get and the less likely it will be that the patient responds to therapy.

Tell us about your mentoring team.

My mentors include:

I have known Dr. Kashani since before coming to Mayo Clinic, and he has mentored me on numerous prior research projects.

I have more recently had the opportunity to get to know Drs. Pasupathy and Herasevich, whose research endeavors I have admired for some time. Dr. Pasupathy is an expert in predictive analytics and the development and implementation of decision-support tools. Dr. Herasevich and Dr. Kashani both share these areas of interest and expertise, particularly among patients who are critically ill.

How will your research improve patient care or impact public health?

The predictive and decision-support tool I plan to develop will improve the care of a high-risk cohort, patients admitted to the hospital, by facilitating the early recognition and timely treatment of shock. It will streamline patients' care processes and avoid the hazards associated with prolongation of the shock state due to lack of clinical recognition.

The ultimate goal would be to see a reduction in mortality in these patients, but improving end-organ function is another relevant goal.